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Take one Owl + one Reluctant Math Student = Success, A Review

3/18/2015

I have to admit, I was shocked when I heard these words from my boy child "Mom, Can I do math with the owl yet?" My immediate response was "Sure, here, let me set him up for you." I tried hard not to show my shock but inwardly I was SO delighted. My Boy WANTS to do math!!!! This was a great review for us to do.

What can I say but that GPALOVEMATH has been a total success in our household. :) Doing this review has given my boy an appreciation, though not yet a fondness for math. GPA LEARN has put together a product that works well for my boy and I am impressed. It has become our main math program.

The Philosophy ofGPA LEARN is Learn, Engage and Motivate. GPA LEARN is the winner of the 2015 Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA) seal of approval for math help. Each grade level has it own teacher/helper to guide the student through their learning. 150 lessons, 10,000 questions.

For grade four students, their instructor is an owl. I have to admit, my boy likes the owl but he has been known to say "Mom, Hooty doesn't know very much." It makes him laugh, which I think is part of the appeal. Each grade has it own instructor.

Each lesson is divided into three sections. Learn, Practice, Quiz. Your student can access this from their dashboard by pressing on the Learn tab. Currently my son is working on three streams of learning. I allow him to pick which ever lesson he wishes to. If I wanted to as a parent I could go into my dashboard and open up lessons ahead of time for him, but I have chosen not to do that with my son. He likes being able to go through the lessons at his own speed. Sometimes he chooses to redo a lesson... quickly skipping through the parts he already knows so he can concentrate on what he is unsure of. I am so pleased that he is gaining confidence enough to know that it's okay to not know everything right away and just redoing things is the best way to learn. He is so NOT intimidated by this program which is why I think it works for him.

Each lesson is presented in a logical fashion. The student is told what the objective of the lesson is. As you can see at the bottom of the screen are red and green buttons. These arrows are how you progress through the lesson.

My son being the audio learner that he is loves that he can just click on the question and it will read it to him. Sometimes he does this simply because he doesn't want to do the reading. But mostly he does it because it makes more sense to him if he hears it read out loud. The lessons are presented on a step by step manner that makes it very clear for your student.

When you get to the practice session the student is given three lifelines. My lad was using these for a while until I told him it was cheating. He was shocked! "Mom, I thought they were just there to answer the question when I didn't want to.". (I smiled). Then told him they were there to help him if he simply didn't know the answer.

The practice session gives the student a chance to see if they have learned the facts well enough to be confident to take the quiz.

Correct answers will give you a green checkmark, and a congratulations comment. Incorrect answers give you a red try again button and a "try again" comment.

Once your student has gained confidence in their practicing of the new material they are move straight into the quiz. For the quiz section they are asked the questions without being told if they are right or wrong. They are shown their results when they complete the test and can see where they made errors. The brown tab at the top shows what number of question you are on and how many are left.

GPALOVEMATH created by GPA LEARN works hard to create an environment that makes learning a non-threatening environment. They encourage hard work by offering various motivational rewards for the children. These rewards run the gambit from TOYSRUS gift certificates that the student can order, to student specific rewards their parent might set up (for my son that means additional minecraft time). GPA LEARN sets up various other rewards that parents can choose from as well from staying up later, getting more TV time, to play dates with friends and more. They make it very easy to choose a variety of rewards that will help motivate your student to doing their work well.

This web-based program .. it is not a downloaded program, is highly transportable. My son did most of his work on my laptop, generally at home, but sometimes when we were out and about. All we needed was a WIFI connection and we were set. :) He preferred doing the work on the touch screen laptop, though sometimes struggled with colour differentiation for some of the answers, but it worked just as easily on my slower desktop. For the colour differentiation answers, it was really a matter of having to pay attention to what he was doing.

What I liked:
My son's increased confidence in doing math. It is still not his favourite subject but he actually ASKS to do math now as opposed to say "NO, do I HAVE TO???".

Step by Step Instruction. I really liked how they explained place value and you could see the lights going on with the step up way they showed it.   All the lessons were broken down like that, and with the option to here is all audibly, it really worked well for him.

Reward Delight. The look on my son's face the first time he earned extra minecraft time and when I had to do one of his chores. WOW.   "Mom, can I do more math?   When do I get another reward?"

Email Updates.   I loved geting emails from GPA LEARN when he was finished with the lesson. This came in very handy a few times when I set him to doing work with his gramma minding him, and this way I knew when he was getting his work done.   Gave me something to be able to chat with him about as well. :)

What my son liked:
"I like that I can skip forward in the lessons if I understand what they are talking about."
'I like that I can do it again if I want to."
"I think Hooty is silly sometimes Mom."
"I like that I can get mom to do my chores and get more time playing minecraft."

Product Details
Vendor: GPA LEARN
Product: GPALOVEMATH
Grade Range: K-5.
Cost: Special Introductory Price of $129 per year per child It is regularly $149
OR $12.99 per month per child

Supported on: Currently supported formats are Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac Computers, Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari 6 and 7.

I hope you will check out Great Parents Academy for yourself, but if you want to gain the perspective from other members of the crew, pleaseclick on this link or the banner below.

GPA LEARN can be found on social media:
www.facebook.com/gpalearn
www.twitter.com/gpalearn
www.pinterest.com/gpalearn

Why would she do that mom??

3/17/2015

My son and I just finished reading "Isabel, Jewel of Castilla". This book is part of the series entitled the Royal Diaries. In this book, Isabel is keeping a journal about the events in her life. She tells the story of her life in Spain, 1466.

Dona Isabel, father dead with warring brothers... One the King Enrique, the other Prince Alfonso.   What could a girl do?   Ordered by the King to live in Segovia, separated from her dearly loved mother who has not recovered from her husband's death.

Privately supporting her younger brother, which over time becomes a public support, which sadly ends in defeat and the begging of forgiveness from her brother.

Isabel is being courted for marriage from a variety of suitors, none of which suit her desires except for one Fernando of Aragon.

Through various trials, love wins out.

This book introduced my son to variety of new concepts from wet nurses, conversos, religious persecution, arranged marriages and more.   A frequent question received was "why would they do that mom?"

We would talk about the various issues and our conversation would end with "but I wouldn't do that mom cause that's not nice." I agreed, it wasn't nice.

My son was shocked that Isabel was the one who sent Christopher Columbus on his way.     He was horrified at how she treated people who weren't Christians and thought she was very mean.

We like reading through these books. They give a first person account of daily life and then sum it up at the end with some of the other facts that aren't covered in the journal itself.   Images are included to give more depth to the story.

If you want to know about the early history of Spain, this is a good way to introduce it your children. :)

Thinking Tuesday: Pythagorus

3/17/2015

I think everyone has heard of Pythagoras. He was a deeply religious and superstitious man who grew up in Greece and learned geometry in Egypt. He believed in reincarnation, and even established a religious cult where he cast himself as a virtual messiah.

He thought that is you lived by a strict set of behavioural rules and objective scientific thinking that you could avoid the reincarnation cycle.

This is brief explanation of how his thinking progressed.
NUMBER is the ruler of FORMS
- everything in the universe conforms to mathematical rules and ratios.
- so if we understand number and mathematical relationship
- we came to understand the structure of the cosmos
and if so then mathematics is the key model for philosophical thought
ERGO
Number is the ruler of ideas.

I can sorta see where he is coming from. If you think mathematics explains everything. If your goal in life is freedom from the cycle of reincarnation, and you believe that living a certain way and being objective in your thinking will free you from that. Numbers would be the way to go. AND if you have a thorough understanding of math, probabilities and such like, it rather makes sense. I know from having watched the show Numbers and other such shows that there is more math in life than I generally even consider. :).

Pythagoras is best remembered for his theorem. which states "that the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. The theorem can be written as an equation relating the lengths of the sides a, b and c, often called the "Pythagorean equation"" For more on this theory go here.

click to go to source

His community of about 300 people lived near Croton in southern Italy until they were forced to leave.   His community, which studied a mixture of mystical and academics study disappeared by the end of the fourth century BCE.   He advance thinking in the realms of mathematics, science and mysticism.

It was very important to Pythagoras and his followers to make order out of chaos.   If you want to know about what he and his followers contributed, please check out this site for more information.

So what do I think of Pythagoras?
I think he was a man who knew how think and did a good job at it. I think he did all the work in thinking that he did so that he could make sense of the world.   He wanted to avoid reincarnation and I suppose that had a lot of do with his wanting order in the world and mathematics is a well ordered discipline.

What say you?

Missionary Monday: Mary Cushman

3/16/2015

Dr. Mary Cushman was a medical missionary to Africa.    She was a missionary within the Congregational Church.

"In 1922, Dr. Cushman accepted an appointment as a medical missionary from the predecessor of the United Board for World Ministries. She was 52 at the time, and her mission was to establish a hospital in Chilesso, Angola, West Africa, which she accomplished." (source)

I was introduced to Mary Cushman through the book compiled by Nina Millen entitled "Missionary Heroes."   In this book we learn about how Dr. Mary worked in the hospital and had a good relationship with a little black girl named Vikomo.   This little girl ended up being big help as she worked among the people.

Dr. Mary worked among Vikomo's people for 20 years.    By the time she left, Vikomo was preparing to go to Portugal to learn to become a doctor.   Her plans were to become the next doctor in Dr. Mary's Hospital.

The story of her life is published in a book called Missionary Doctor.

Using Math Analogies to Develop Critical Thinking, A Review.

3/15/2015

One of the things I wish had been emphasized for me as a child was the ability to put different facts together and use them to think critically about them. Ergo, as I am teaching my son I continually look for ways to help him learn to think critically about the things that he comes across.

Imagine my delight when I was given the opportunity to review Math Analogies Level Two for The Critical Thinking Company? It was great! I had another way to help my boy learn to think in a critical manner and become a better thinker which will help him well in the future.

Math analogies is a downloadable product, for Windows only. The goal of The Critical Thinking Co. is to develop better thinking students. In the product that I downloaded, they used math as the vehicle for doing so.

The start screen starts with the last person to use the program. One student can use it at a time and needs to complete it before the next student uses it as the program does not keep a record of more than one student at a time. The sign up is easy. It will ask for the student's name. As you can see it will show your first attempt and what percentage you are achieving. Where the white block is, is where the students name is located. You have four attempts to complete each question.

Each subsequent attempt will have it's own label. I have to tell you this, my son likes seeing his progress. He wants to see that percentage be above 70%. He was a bit bummed that he missed one on his second attempt as shown so far.

I have to say I like how they make it very clear if your answer is correct or incorrect. Do you see how for correct the words are in green and next analogy box is as well. For incorrect everything is in red.

One of the things we liked about math analogies was the sheer amount of variety in the questions. Fractions, pictorials, multiplication, clocks, money and more. I will suggest that before you actually start doing the questions that you actually take the time to read the instructions on how to play. As you'll notice from the picture below a system of dots is used. The dots that look like a colon stand for "is to" and the four dots together mean "as". It may take your student a bit of time to understand the system but once they understand it, doing the program will be quite easy for them. The question mark shows clearly what answer you are looking for.

It is an easy to use program in that there is a question with four possible answers given. Then it is just a matter of dragging the correct answer to where the question mark is.

Our thoughts
I have to admit, this program surprised me.
I thought my boy would take to it immediately.   He didn't. It did not intuitively make sense for him with how it worked.   I despaired having him willingly do it.

But I learned something... Time is important. My lad worked it out. He did!   He was happy and excited. "Mom!" He came to me. "I know how to do it now!"

We ended up using this critical thinking program 2-4 times a week.   We fit it in on a regular basis doing 5-10 questions at a time.

The initial dislike turned into a confidence booster. "Think we can beat it mom?   Think I can get better mom?    I know I can do it mom." I have to say how much I liked that boost in confidence he gained. Smiles and yeahs speak volumes to me.    His confidence in being able to figure out some "I don't know how to do this math" to "maybe I can figure it out math".   It's very good to see this.

When I asked my son what he liked he said:
"I liked that the questions are not all the same."
"I like that if I really don't know the answer I can guess."
"I like that some of the questions are really easy."
"The picture questions are really easy."
"I like that I can't cheat if I get the answer wrong. I have to wait until the next attempt to try to do it again."

What do I like?
The clear start up instructions.   I have to admit, I didn't make sure that my son had a really clear understanding of the dots before he started. I thought it would make sense intuitively to him as it did to me.   I was wrong. Reading over the instructions and letting him figure it out in his brain.    But what I have now is a boy who likes the program and willingly works at it.

Variety.
Words. Clocks. Fractions. Pictorials.   Blocks.   Multiplication. Patterns. and more.   Means that you don't get stuck on one pattern, that you can see math in more than one way, that the program is interesting rather than repetitive.

Ease of Use.
I found it very easy to use and almost had the program done before my son wrapped his head around it well.   Once he understood the dot system he found it easy to use as well.

Tracking of achievement.
My son found this to be an encouragement to know how well he was doing overall.

Downloadable Product.
Once I have it is mine.   This means if I have more than one student I can have each of the children work their way through it.

Other products being reviewed by the Crew are:

Alphabet Song Game (Windows software download) (Gr. Toddler - 1)
Math Analogies Beginning (Windows software download) (Gr. K-1)
Math Analogies Level 1 (Windows software download) (Gr. 2-3)
Editor in Chief Level 1 (physical book) (Gr. 4-5)
Editor in Chief Level 2 (physical book) (Gr. 6-8)
Pattern Explorer (physical book) (Gr. 5-7)
World History Detective Book 1 (physical book) (Gr.6-12+)

To read what the crew members thought of these products, do clink on this link or on the banner below.

Product Details:
Vendor: The Critical Thinking Co.
Product:Math Analogies Level 2
Price: Pricing options can be found here.

The Critical Thinking Co. can be found at the following social media links:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCriticalThinkingCo
https://plus.google.com/114500823774999703181
https://twitter.com/criticalthinks
https://www.pinterest.com/source/criticalthinking.com/

Older books, it makes me smile

3/14/2015

It makes me smile.
I have a number of less than modern books in my house.
I pick them up and read them with my boy and he SO likes them.
The whimsical drawings rather than lovely colour photography draws him in.
He'll ask questions about why they illustrator drew it that way, and express interest in a variety of ways. I get less of those off the wall comments when I have a more modern book with lots of colour photography.
I love those questions and that curiousity. :)

Our most current read through was a book called Fabulous Animals Facts that hardly anyone knows.
It was written by Rita Golden Gelmen.
Illustrated by Margaret A. Hartelius.

As you can see from the cover the pictures are illustrations. :) The lad liked them.

Anyways, what is this book about?
Throughout the book various unexpected bits of information are given out about a variety of animals. From the baby kangaroo being smaller than a teaspoon at birth, to honeydew ant storing dew in it's belly. We had to look up if they can rupture their bellies if they eat too much and they can! This made my boy giggle. (all those surprised ants getting a face full of dew). He was disappointed that unlike lizards who can regrow their tails mice cannot.

So don't neglect those old books. There are treasures to be found for your children. :) And found treasures mean questions asked and learning accomplished... a good thing that is it not?

Review: Anna's Crossing

3/14/2015

Suzanne Woods Fisher brings us the trials of needing to move from one land to another.

Anna's is a young lady who can speak English who belongs to a small group of Amish who simply need to get away from the country (Germany) that they are living in. They want land of their own and the freedom to worship as they desire.   The sadness of death drives them along the way.

Been chosen, against her will, to make the journey Anna finds herself becoming intrigued by the carpenter of the book, Bairn.   Bairn finds himself watching a lady that he does not wish too and being happily plagued by an inquisitive Amish boy who is simply into EVERYTHING.   Felix is a happy eager child, worried about his momma, and totally enjoying life on the ship (NOT a boat). :)

The sailors live their lives full of superstitions and having the Amish on board with their women, children and flowers is a cause of great concern for them.   Trouble at sea, a captain that over crowds his ship, dealing with slavers, seeing God's grace at work, a mystery, bad dreams, a time of reckoning. This book is filled with story lines of interest.   The characters are well-developed and hope for new life is received.

If you are a person who enjoys Amish fiction and would like to step out of the farming scene, this book is for you. It brings in understanding of why people needed to leave and how dangerous the ocean crossings could be. God's grace in action is shown throughout the book. Anna's growth as a young woman is clearly seen, in her obedience despite her lack of comfort in the situations God placed her in.

It's a good read.

Product Details:
Received: Softcover edition of Anna's Crossing
Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Publisher: Revell
Pages: 308
Series: An Amish Beginnings Novel
Reviewed for : Nuts about Books.

Discover Canada Giveaway.

3/13/2015

1) Family/Group Discovery Pass from Parks Canada. Valid for 1 year from date of issue. Value $136.40. Here's the details on what it includes etc: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/ar-sr/lpac-ppri/ced-ndp.aspx

2) Rough Guide: Canada - travel guide book. Value $29.99. Here's the Amazon listing if you want more info: http://www.amazon.ca/Rough-Guide-Canada-Phil-…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

3) The Ultimate Guide to Field Trips in Canada ebook. Value: $5.99. From Sharla Kostelyk smile emoticon (Thanks Sharla!) of The Chaos and the Clutter. Details:
http://thecanadianhomeschooler.com/ultimate-field-trip-gui…/

To learn more about Canada parks go here.

Rules:

Open to Canada, excluding Quebec (sorry my QC friends. :( Take it up with the gov't rules about contests!) 18+. Ends April 15th @11:59pm.

Entry -Form

Five Random Things

3/13/2015

So.. Five Random Things.

1. I rarely participate in the blog hop. I normally just don't think about it. But as I sit here with my son resting my ankle after having a lovely walk with him, I thought..huh... that's a random thing, so here I am. :)

2. This week I had a nice conversation with a gal who bought one of my bunnies. She was even nice to leave me a note on my rabbitry blog about it as well. :) It's one of the things I love most about selling rabbits, is the people connections I make.

3. I have this book on Hannah More that I am reviewing for someone. I am enjoying the book but it is a very slow read. I am feeling guilty that I don't have it done as soon as I thought it would and am considering fudging the review just so I can get it done. You know.... where you do a review and you haven't quite managed to finish reading the whole thing but you don't tell people that. I don't know.. is that fudging or just getting through it. Perhaps if I mention that I didn't read the whole book in time to finish the review???? I don't know.

4. We had an EARLY morning today. The lad needed to go to our ENT to get the stitches out after his ear surgery. Next visit will have the gunk in the first part of his ear vacuumed out. They wanted to make that one for 8 a.m. as well and I begged off asking for a later appointment please and we got it for 11 a.m. next time. MUCH more doable that. :)

Now that the stitches are out and I can give him a badly needed haircut and have him take a proper shower.

5. As I sit here typing this my lad and hubby are playing minecraft and I am pondering what my take will be on the Critical Thinking Review I want to get completed tonight or tomorrow morning. I know that my expectations and reality turned out to be somewhat different.

Anyways, that's my Random Five on Friday. If you want to join in go link up with Pebble Pond.

Five Minute Friday: Plan

3/12/2015

The rules are simple. Write for five minutes. Stop. Link up. Encourage the person before you in the link up. :) Easy enough eh? This week the word is PLAN.

1113 p.m.   3, 2, 1, Go

So when I think of the word plan what immediately pops into my head is how everyone in the homeschooling world seems to follow a planner. They get their children following one as well. Or at least that's how it seems. Plan, plan, plan.

I have to admit... I STRUGGLE in this area.   When I plan, I feel locked into it and then I get so disheartened when life doesn't happen like I want it to.

Seems silly.

Other people seem to thrive on it planning.

So why can't I?

I guess it's all in the way God programs us right?   And I have to keep remembering that God has my whole life figured out. He's done the planning for me.

He knows when I get up and when I lie down. He knows my worries, thoughts, fears, insecurities.   He knows my joys, and good moments too.

And knowing that I shouldn't feel insecure.

But still I do you know? When I take my eyes off him and I look at what others are doing and how I so often, just fall short.   Yeah... I can make myself look good. But I don't see that right?   I see how .. we started our Canadian studies this year with great intentions... and how geography with art became a flop.   How I wasn't sure how this GPA math thing would work as it's so organized But how my boy loves doing it. He knows what to do and what to expect and he likes that.

I'm feeling pulled to plan more with/for him as it suits HIM to be planned.

But I don't know how to make it work for both of us.

You all have any thoughts????

And it's 1118...there's my five minutes.

Please do give me your thoughts if you have them.... I want to figure it out. :)